A Chance to Change
by Pandesme
Summary: TimeTravel Fic! Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny decide to go back to change it all. The catch? They won't be able to speak to eachother ever again. Their plan? Divide and conquer, Slytherin Harry, Ravenclaw Hermione, Hufflepuff Ginny, and Gryffindor Ron.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything related to Harry Potter. I'm making no money from this, it's just for fun.

* * *

"We all know what we need to do, what we're going to have to do. As long as we stick to the plan everything should work out alright..."

Harry could hear the doubt in Hermione's voice, and he was sure Ron and Ginny could hear it too. What they were about to attempt was unthinkable, and there were so many things that could go wrong. The four of them were risking everything, everything they had ever known for this one chance.

They were planning on going back and changing everything, time travel. The ritual they were using was an old one, one that might kill them if it went wrong. But they had felt it was worth the risk for the chance to try again. The war had not lasted long, only three years after Dumbledore's death. But it had been brutal.

In the end Fred had died, along with Remus and Tonks. Hermione's parents had been killed as well, but not as a direct result of the war. Hogwarts had been destroyed, families torn apart. A few of their classmates had been killed, Colin Creevy among them. Dobby had died, and Hedwig as well.

In the grand scheme of things Harry supposed that they got off easy, it could have been much worse. Nevertheless Fred's death had hit the Weasley's hard. George would never be the same; he had already attempted to kill himself more than once. Molly Weasley was near catatonic in her grief, and Harry suspected that she would never recover. Arthur was looking into long term care for her.

Hermione likewise had been completely devastated by the loss of her parents, knowing that she would never get to say goodbye and that they had died not knowing that she even existed. She blamed herself, and it changed her.

For his part Harry had never gotten over the death of Sirius, and Dumbledore. To add in Remus had been a blow he wasn't expecting. For anyone else these reasons may not have seemed enough to take such drastic steps, but for the four of them it was more than enough.

"Harry, you'll need to lay the groundwork for plan B as you go along. Hopefully it won't come to that. I know how much Dumbledore's trust means to you, are you prepared to go through with this? Because even after it's all over... he'll never trust you."

At Harry's nod she turned to Ron and Ginny. "And you two? What you have to do, it will forever change your family. There won't be any going back."

They both nodded and Ron turned to her "What about you Hermione? I know how difficult it's going to be for you, you'll be all alone..."

Hermione swallowed. "Yes, I'll be fine. It shouldn't be that hard compared to what you'll all have to go through." She looked doubtful even as she said it.

Harry looked at the portal, it was almost time. "Is everyone ready?" he asked quietly.

They all looked at each other one last time, tears in each of their eyes. If everything went according to plan it would be thirteen years before the four of them would be able to speak to each other again.

Ginny stepped towards the portal smiling sadly at Harry and Hermione, "Well, I guess I'll talk to you two in a decade or so..."

After she stepped through Hermione gave Ron and Harry one last hug and a whispered "I'll miss you guys, don't forget to do your homework." She smiled weakly at her own attempt at lightening the mood. "I love you both."

After she was gone Harry turned to Ron. "Do you reckon we're doing the right thing? Should we have told Hermione and Ginny?"

"I don't think we had much of a choice, they never would have agreed to it..."

They nodded to each other solemnly. Ron clasped Harry on the shoulder, "Be seeing you mate."

After he was gone, Harry took one last look around before stepping through. Then the world went dark.

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So there's the prolog, not very long but you'll get more details about their plan in the next chapter. I've tried to make this story different from any other time travel fic out there, and I think I've done a pretty good job of it. But you'll have to find that out in later chapters :P Leave me a review and let me know what you think :)

Also there's a new Harry Potter forum http: / kingscrossstation. proboards. com (Just copy and paste this into your address bar and remove the spaces) its pretty cool, and everyone is super friendly. Check it out if you get the chance!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I'm not making any money off of this.

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The plan was both simple and complicated. Overall the general idea was straight forward enough, each of them had a role to play, a job to carry out. In order for them to do this it was essential that they be sorted into different houses at Hogwarts. For Ron and Ginny this meant that they would have to act a certain way long before they ever stepped foot into Hogwarts, so that their family wouldn't be too shocked. Of course there was more to it than that, the way they behaved now would affect their part in the plan later.

Ron almost didn't even want to think about it, but he had to. He glanced at Ginny and waited for her to give him the nod that she was here with him. It was disconcerting to say the least; he had forgotten just how _small _he was at five. Ron and Ginny had perhaps the most life changing role to play, for what they were about to do would tear their family apart.

The portal had taken all four of them back into their five year old bodies, four years old for Ginny. In order for the ritual to work they had to have an anchor that would travel back with them; their wands. It was why Hermione had chosen this ritual; to have their wands with them was essential to their plan. Add in the fact that these wands were now part of a time paradox and technically didn't exist in their current state, well that part only served to give Ron a headache. What he did know was that their wands did not have the trace on them, because they hadn't had the trace when they came back in time.

Now the entire point of going back this far was to lay the ground work, and put the first phases of their plan into action. Ron and Ginny had a very important job to do during this time, and that was to find and destroy Voldemort's horcruxes. Which really is easier said than done, especially for five year olds. It would take them five years to do this, despite the fact that they already knew where each horcruxe was. This was mostly due to their young age; it would take a long time to destroy each one since their magical cores were still developing.

Of course this also meant that they would have to leave home, they obviously wouldn't be able to do this while living in the Burrow. They would have to run away from home, and they wouldn't return for five years at least. But in order to carry out the second half of their part in the plan they had an elaborate cover story they would have to put in place before returning to the Burrow.

Hermione had done months of research for them to make their story flawless, and Ron and Ginny had to take months of lessons to get their roles just right. The story would be that they had lived on the streets of London, which at first sounded simple enough. However there were important things they had to learn to make the story believable. They had to learn to steal, pickpocket, street fight, as well use street slang. They had also had to learn about London's gangs, important places, events, people, and other general information that a child living on the streets would know.

That wasn't all either, Hermione had researched various potions and spells that Ron and Ginny would have to use before they returned to the Burrow. It was dark magic, but it would effectively give five years worth of memories to selected people. Hermione had researched the people in advance; she had to take those people's real memories from that time and use them to create a new set of memories that would replace them with Ron and Ginny added in. They had done this repeatedly until she was confident that Ron and Ginny would be able to do this on their own when the time came.

Ron was snapped out of his thoughts as Bill walked into the backyard. They had chosen the day to come back to very carefully, all of their siblings were at home and they were having a family dinner outside. "Oi! Come on squirts, dinner's ready."

As he sat down at the table, Ginny right beside him, he felt an overwhelming wave of guilt at what they were going to put their family through. But it was too late to back out now. Right on cue Fred and George started making fun of the "ickle babies Ronnikins and Gin-Gin." It was exactly as he remembered it, his mother half heartedly trying to make the twins stop while chuckling at her two youngest children grumpy faces.

"Stop it!" Ginny's childlike protest came, her eyes shining with unshed tears. That was Ron's cue.

"That's it! If nobody's going to be nice to us then I'm running away!" Ron tried not to wince at how corny it sounded, but knew no one would care since it was coming from a five year old. He slammed his cup down and jumped up from the table and started walking towards the shed.

"Won, wait for me! I want to run away to!" Ginny cried as she jumped up and ran after her brother as fast as her little legs would carry her, worried that if she didn't then she might lose her nerve.

Molly Weasley just chuckled and shook her head. They all "ran away" at some point (usually to the tree fort behind Arthur's shed), and promptly came back as soon as they got bored. This usually didn't take long, not more than an hour or two. So she let them walk away, to lick their wounded pride. She was completely convinced that they would be back within the hour, most likely in time for dessert. She didn't realise then just how devastatingly wrong she was.

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First off I want to apologise for taking so long to update, I'm an irregular updater at best. Real life just gets in the way sometimes, although I will try to update on a more regular basis.

Also I know this chapter is short, but don't worry they will get longer! The next two or three chapters will be about this length as well, but after that they'll start getting longer :)

Lastly I want to thank everyone who reviewed! I also got an astounded amount of story alerts and favorites, so thank you for that as well! I know not everything is clear yet, but I'm doing that on purpose :P Also I know that the trace isn't actually on the wand, but I need it to work that way for the story. I don't have a Beta reader so if anyone notice any spelling/grammmer, or plotholes, or anything else please let me know!

So with all that out of the way, please leave me a review! If I get alot I just may post the next chapter tomorrow... *winks*


	3. Chapter 3

*Ducks Pitchforks* Yes I know its been a few weeks past when I said I would update. But in my denfense my University school semester started back up, and I've been very busy. It's no excuse I know, and I'll do my best to update again before this upcoming tuesday as a reward for being so nice about it :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am not making any money off of this.

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At first all he felt was pain, an intense mind numbing pain throughout his entire body. Slowly the pain started to ebb away and Harry sat up uneasily in the dark space. Well, his cupboard was just as he remembered it at least, he thought as he groped blindly for his glasses only to remember belatedly that at five years old he didn't have them yet. Instead he let his hand fall to the comforting presence of his wand, glad that he still had it. After all the whole plan would basically have been shot if it hadn't come through with him. Leaning back against the wall he reflected, not for the first time, on just how he was going to manage everything he had to do. It really hadn't occurred to him just how incredibly _small _he was at this age.

His mind started to wander over what he was going to need to do in the next couple days. First he was going to need to perform a series of spells over his relatives, some of which were on the darker side. It was nothing that horrible really, well depending on one's opinion of such things. But Harry personally didn't have too much of a problem with what he had to do, since he knew how the Dursleys would treat him if he didn't. Add in the fact that if he didn't do this then he would never be able to carry out the first phases of his part in The Plan, and through cause and effect the later stages of his part in The Plan, which would in turn effectively ruin the entire Plan and well any lingering doubts he had went right out the window.

It was fairly simple really; he was going to cast a series of charms over his relatives, some of which would effectively tweak their memories of certain events, and outright alter their memories of other events. While some of the other spells he would be casting would deal with their emotions, towards magic, his parents, Petunia's parents, Harry himself, and even each other. It wasn't just one spell, there were many, and each one was chosen specifically for the fact that they would complement the others and play off each other. The memory charms would only make slight changes in vital memories. Not enough to change the outcome of the memories, or actual events, just minor details that in accordance with the emotion charms would change the way these events were remembered and the feelings that would accompany them.

By changing these things the Dursleys extreme prejudice towards magic in general, as well as Harry, James and Lily, and for Petunia her very childhood, would be changed. Oh they're personalities would remain the same, rather they would be they way they would have been had they never hated magic in the first place. Now obviously they would never _love _magic, but they certainly wouldn't hate it. This meant that they would have no reason to "beat the magic out of him," the result being a normal childhood and being raised as if he were actually a part of the Dursleys family. Harry was still mostly convinced that this was not going to be a good thing, but it was necessary.

Due to his age, and current lack of magical maturity, it would take Harry the course of several days to complete the charms. During that time he was also going to need to break into Mrs. Figg's house and make several potions for himself. All of the potions he would be making were going to help in correcting the four years of neglect at the hands of the Dursleys. There would be several nutrition potions, to get him to the levels he should be at for his age and make up for the previous four years. As well as potions to make up for the lack of sunlight he received due to the majority of his time being spent indoors or within his extremely dark cupboard, as well as the standard potions that all children that grew up within the wizarding received. These mostly consisted of various immunizations to various wizarding and Muggle diseases, similar to Muggle immunization shots (which Harry had never received), as well as the standard boosters.

Unlike the Muggle world where boosters were basically a type of immunization, boosters in the wizarding world were a mixture of various nutrients, vitamins, and magical ingredients that would encourage any recessive magical traits or genes to come to the forefront. There was really no grantee that the boosters would do anything other than help the child reach their full growth and health potential. You actually had to have some recessive magical traits for that part of the potion to actually do anything. But fortunately for Harry he did. Boosters were common practice among purebloods such as the Malfoy's, but people like the Weasley's hadn't bothered with them in ages.

Making the potions would take several days as well, and that was provided that Mrs. Figg had all the necessary ingredients. He would have to find a way to get his own potions set and supplies within the next few months since he would need to take the nutrition and booster potions on a fairly regular basis. There would be other immunization potions he would have to take over the years as well. One benefit of all the nutrition potions correcting the years of neglect, and the Dursleys soon to be new attitude towards Harry would be that he would hopefully end up not needing glasses at all. Most of the damage to his eyesight had come from years and years for being locked up in dark spaces, and lack of proper food, and the potions would obviously correct that.

Of course that was only the easy stuff. After he had completed all that within the next week or two he had the small matter of absorbing the horcrux within him. Obviously small being used rather loosely. He had to completely integrate the horcrux to himself, effectively destroying Voldemort's soul while keeping all of his memories, knowledge, and abilities. The first stage would be simple enough, if excruciatingly painful, however the integrating of Voldemort's knowledge, memories, and abilities would take much longer and he would be out cold the entire time. But if all went well the Harry's would know everything Voldemort knew. Every spell, potion, ritual, and random information. He would know Voldemort's personality and how he would react to any given situation, as well as be able to effectively guess at what he was going to do. Also he would still be fluent in Parseltounge, as well as gaining the abilities of Occlumency and Legilimency.

But still that was fairly easy when compared to what he was going to need to start doing once he had finished absorbing the Horcrux. After all laying the foundations for your own person army of half-bloods was no easy task. Especially when they were all still five years old.

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When Hermione Granger opened her eyes she was greeted with the sight of baby blue walls, and toys scattered across the floor mingled with various children's books. Bolstered by the fact that the ritual had in fact worked she twirled her wand in her hand. She had chosen this particular ritual for the very reason that it used each person's wand as a focal point, allowing the wand itself to go back in time with them. The ritual did have its downside, but luckily it played into their plan.

The downside was basically that the magic used to create the portal that took them back in time also made it so that if they were to physically speak to each other for a set period of time or "disastrous" things would happen. Simply put, they would probably die. To open the portal a magical diagram had to be made. This diagram would plot the opening of the portal based on the position of the people and their focal points within it. However Hermione had been able to tweak the ritual just enough to allow Ron and Ginny's focal points to be at the same place, essentially this would allow them to be able to speak to one another. Since obviously they would not have been able to go any length of time not being able to speak to each other due to their family and their part in the plan.

This still left Ron and Ginny unable to speak to either Harry or Hermione, and Harry and Hermione likewise unable to speak with each other or either Ron or Ginny. The lucky part of this overall shitty situation was that it played into their plan well enough. They would divide and conquer, and in order for that to work in the way they intended it was essential that nobody think that they knew each other or were friends. This unfortunate downside to the ritual only ensured that aspect of the plan. Of course it would have been easier if they had still been able to communicate in secret, but they would make it work.

Hermione had estimated that it would be approximately ten years before the residual magic from the ritual had left them and they would be able to speak to one another again. However they couldn't be positive, and they had agreed to wait until the end or Harry, Ron and Hermione's seventh year in before they actually spoke to each other again. Just to be on the safe side.

Hermione slowly got dressed and made her way downstairs, somewhat reluctantly. She was both anxious and excited to see her parents. "There you are sweetheart, would you like pancakes or waffles today?" asked her mother as Hermione entered the kitchen. She bent down and gave her daughter a kiss before directing her over to the table.

Hermione froze in place shocked in spite of herself at the sight of her mother. She was both the same and vastly different, and she felt her eyes start to well up at the sight of her mother. She shook her head to clear it and asked for pancakes in a small voice she barely recognized as her own. Once her father was in the room as well, and her parents were busy talking to each other Hermione took out her wand and steadied herself. She was nervous, and scared. After all, the last time she had cast memory charms on her parents they had died before she could reverse them.

It was only temporary, she reminded herself. And it was different then last time. This time she would only be making them believe she was at camp for a couple weeks. When in reality she would be staying in London and getting various paperwork, research, and motions set up and put in place. She would have to work quickly, and it would be made harder by the glamour she was going to have to put on herself to appear older. But it was necessary, so she steeled herself and slowly casted the memory charms on her parents before quickly making her way out the door.

* * *

Ron and Ginny stopped running once they had made their way behind the shed and down towards the creek. If Ron strained his ears he could still hear his family talking and laughing away. He looked at Ginny, "You ready?"

Ginny looked somewhat sick, but determined just the same. "As I'll ever be." They silently grasped hands before pooling their magic in a joint effort and appareated away.

It was an hour later when Molly Weasley was getting ready to serve dessert to the rest of her family that she decided to send Bill to go fetch Ron and Ginny. After all they had "ran away" for a whole hour now, and for a four and five year old that was a long enough time. Besides she thought with a slight smile, they would get upset if they had to wait too long before the family came looking for them to apologise and beg them not to run away.

When Bill did not come back right away she felt a slight pit begin to form in her stomach, and a sick feeling begin to take over her. Fifteen minutes later Bill had still not returned. "Arthur..." She was pale and she could feel the horror begin to take over.

"Yes Molly? You look Pale, are you alri-"

She cut him off, and by now the whole family was watching her. "Go find the kids; Bill must be having trouble..." He studied her carefully and seemed to sense that she thought something was wrong because he gripped her hand before heading in the direction of Bill.

But she knew already, and she sat down heavily in the nearest seat and put her head in her hands. A mother always knew when something was wrong with her babies, and right now she knew something had gone horribly wrong. Ron and Ginny...

"Mom? Is something wrong?" But before Charlie could receive an answer Bill was running towards them.

"They're gone!"

Several hours later and well into the night found the Weasley household the center of the largest search party in recent history. Nearly half of the ministry itself, combined with most of the staff of Hogwarts, as well as family and friends of the Weasley's combined with various volunteers had joined the efforts; the Weasley's may have been poor, but they were kind, well liked, and well connected.

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Well I would first off like to say thanks to everyone that has reviewed thus far, or put this story on alert or favorites! You guys rock!

Secondly a reviewer pointed out that Its not terribly realistic for a Four and Five year old to be living on the streets. They are totally correct, its not realistic at all. But luckily this is fanfiction :) Ron and Ginny will not actually be living on the street, and they will be using magic to disguise themselves when they are areound other people. Such as glamour charms to make themselves appear older. Also the Wizarding world (in my opinion) has no real knowledge of street life, only vauge notions since their world is so spread out and they have no cities of their own. Only hidden ally's and small towns, and various hidden buildings and things. I'm counting on the wizarding world's general naiveté on this, as well as there general standard on beliveing whatever is told to them like sheep and not using their own minds. Also Ron and Ginny are going to be pretty believeable, they'll have the knowledge, abilities, speech, and even real people to back up what they're saying. Their family and the general wizarding world won't have cause not to believe them.

But yes, as the reviewer also mentioned, the Weasley's will be confused and so will the wizarding world as to how they "ran away" they may even think that they've been kidnapped or killed in some way. *whistles* But I can't say anymore on the subject, or that would be telling :P

Also Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's "Plan" is a complicated one, you'll only find out parts of it as we go along. It won't be until the very end that you'll know everything and how it connects. So at times throughout the story some things might not make sense or seem unrealistic, but I promise that by the very end all will make sense :)

Now with that out of the way I would like to kindly beg you all shamelessly for reviews! The more reviews I get, the faster I will update :) They're an excellent motivator.


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter is dedicated to **Tamira **for reviewing every chapter thus far, and giving me some great feedback to work with :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am not making any money off of this. Its just for fun :)

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Hermione sat in her room at a cheap hotel in the center of London. It hadn't been easy to arrange for the room, she had to glamour herself to appear old enough to rent the room and took a great deal of energy for her young body to hold the charm for so long. She had been holding it all day, while taking public transportation to London, and while renting the room itself. Luckily she could rest now, and she let the charm drop. Sighing in relief she tossed her money onto the bedside table before moving to grab a pen and paper out of her bag.

She felt more than a little guilty about taking the money from her parents without them knowing, but she had no other option. Shaking her head of these thoughts she set about making a list. The first thing she had to do was arrange for the muggleborns and halfbloods that Harry and herself had agreed upon prior to move to Surrey. Little Whinging to be exact. This really was easier said than done, she would have to compile compulsion letters to be sent to various companies and employers within Little Whinging and the surrounding area to have the parents of the aforementioned group hired. She would also have to send compulsion letters to the families themselves, to give them the urge to move to Surrey and seek out the employers she had arranged.

Compulsion letters were not terribly tricky in and of themselves. But because of her age and lack of magical maturity it would take her a few days to complete them. Compulsion letters only worked on muggles, basically it was a letter charmed to make the person want to do whatever it was you were suggesting in the letter. They were also charmed to make you forget ever having received the letter, while still leaving you with the compulsions. It was borderline dark magic at best, and against Ministry law.

After she completed the letters, which all told would take about a week, she had a few laws she had to set in motion. Really she just had to plant the ideas in a few select people, and they would carry out the rest. She had chosen them carefully, all were in a position of power enough to do this, and all were the type to keep going until they succeeded. Needless to say this was going to extremely difficult, as it involved some breaking and entering as well as a ton of advanced magic that frankly speaking was far more than her young body would be able to handle. She only had a week to complete this portion of her task before her parents expected her home from "camp."

Flipping to a new page she began her list of muggleborns and halfbloods;

_Katie Bell – 1990 (G)_

_Dean Thomas – 1991 (G)_

_Demelza Robins – 1992 (G)_

_Hannah Abbot – 1991 (H)_

_Megan Jones – 1991(H) (halfblood)_

_Justin Finch-Fletchley – 1991 (H) _

_Terry Boot –1991 (R)_

_Mandy Brockleburst – 1991 (R)_

_Su Li – 1991 (R) (halfblood)_

_Kevin Entwhistle – 1991 (R)_

_Tracey Davis – 1991 (S) (halfblood)_

With the exception of Tracey Davis, Su Li, and Megan Jones they were all muggleborns. Tracey Davis, Su Li, and Megan Jones were all halfbloods that had been raised in the muggle world with no knowledge their wizarding heritage. The year beside each name indicated the year in which they had started Hogwarts, and the letter was the house that they had been sorted into. Harry and Hermione had known that there was a chance the sorting would work out differently for these students this time around, but they had been chosen based on the fact that none of them had known about the wizarding world growing up as well as the house they had been sorted into.

Giving into her exhaustion, Hermione set aside her notes and crawled into the large bed. It still surprised her that she was so small, she had to jump slightly to get onto the bed. Merlin, she couldn't wait to grow up. Again.

* * *

The search had been going for nearly 48 hours straight with no sign of Ron and Ginny. They had been shipped to their Great Aunt Muriel's house for the duration, and Bill wished he was out helping with the search. At 15 years old he understood better than any of his siblings just how dire the situation was. Ron and Ginny were so young, and there was no way they could have managed to get far in the hour they had been left alone. That meant that either someone must have taken them or they were...

But he wouldn't let himself think that, not yet. He tried his best to ignore the small voice in the back of his head that was asking who could have taken them? He knew the answer to that already; there was nobody that could have possibly. Not as far removed as the Burrow was, and not with all the wards and muggle repelling charms. There weren't any wizards nearby that would have either, and Bill wasn't sure if that was a comforting thought or not.

He hoped they were just hiding somewhere; there were many hard to find places in the wood surrounding the Burrow. But he knew that with each passing hour it was far less likely. If they had been hiding there was no way they would have been able to stay hidden this long, unless something had happened to them. What if they had drowned? What if they had tried to climb a tree, as they had seen Bill do countless times? What if they had fallen while climbing, and hurt themselves? What if they were dead?

He was the oldest, and it was his job, his duty, to take care of his younger siblings. He felt responsible. He should have spent more time with them, told the twins to lay off, paid more attention...

He looked over at Charlie, who was staring aimlessly out the window. Charlie was two years younger than him, and at 13 years old he certainly shared Bill's worry. Percy was sitting in front of the fire, aimlessly tracing patterns on the floor. Percy was three years younger than Charlie, and had just turned 10 last week. Bill knew that Percy understood to some degree just how bad the situation was, but he also knew that Percy hadn't given it serious consideration, thinking it more an inconvenience than anything, convinced that their parents would fix it. Bill longed for the days when he still believed his parents capable of fixing any situation.

Bill shifted his gaze to Fred and George. They were both on the couch, facing each other. They looked upset, they way they usually did when they had a nightmare and came running to Bill to make it go away. Fred and George were young, two years younger than Percy; they were only 8 years old, having just had their birthday a few months ago.

Bill tried not to remind himself that Ron was two years younger than the twins, and only 5 years old as his sixth birthday was in a couple months. He tried even harder not to think on the fact that Ginny was only four. Bill's head snapped to the door as his Aunt Muriel bustled in with a plate of sandwiches.

Without saying a word she left them on the corner table, along with a pitcher of water before hurrying back out of the room hastily covering her eyes as she did so. It was completely unlike her to cry, or to be so silent. Usually she was quite vocal with her opinions. Bill knew it must mean that something had happened, something bad.

"Bill?" asked George meekly. "Do you think that Ron and Ginny will forgive us when Mum and Dad bring them home?"

Bill didn't have the heart to tell him that he didn't think Ron and Ginny would be coming home.

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Okay guys, first of I want to say that I got all the names and information on the people in the Muggleborn/Halfblood list from HP Lexicon, and that when it didn't say if they were Pureblood/Halfblood/Muggleborn I took the liberty of making them Muggleborn for the purposes of this story :) Keep in mind its not a full list, just a select few that will be moving to Surrey. Also I got the information on the Weasley's ages from HP Lexicon, but I had to tweak it a bit.

This chapter was shorter then last chapter, only about 1300 words, but from here on out the chapter's will start getting longer :) This chapter was the last of the introduction so to speak, and it will start getting more interesting from now on, and with lnger chapters. So I want you guys to let me know in a review how long you think the chapters should be. 2000 words? 4000 words? 6000 words? Let me know!

I also want to thank everyone that has reviewed thus far, or put this story on an alert of some kind. This story is already on **84 **story alerts, **33 **favorites, and **5 **C2's. So now I'm going to beg shamelessly for reviews! With 84 story alerts I'm hoping to get more reviews :) So if you have this on story alert, or are going to put it on story alert I'd love it if you left a quick review, even if its only one or two words saying "like it" or "hate it" :) It really is easier to update more often when you get lots of reviews :)


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter is dedicated to **Kira the DaySlayer** for giving me some great feedback and ideas :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I am not making any money off of this.

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Harry couldn't help but snicker to himself as he watched his aunt and uncle fight. It was quite the sight, Aunt Petunia was standing with her hands slammed down on the table and her torso leaning forward slightly as she screamed at Vernon, who was seated at said table his face turning a lovely shade of puce while all four of his chins warbled in anger. Dudley's head was whipping back and forth between his parents so fast that Harry was sure he was going to give himself whiplash. But what really made the argument so entertaining was what they were saying.

"-totally barbaric! It's completely unacceptable! I don't know what we were _thinking _making a _child _sleep in a cupboard!"

"Then put him in Dudley's second bedroom! Why on earth does he have two bedrooms anyways?" Vernon's chins gave an angry warble and spittle came out of his mouth as he shouted the words at his wife.

"Vernon! Are you suggesting we make my Dinky-Diddyums give up one of his bedrooms for that –that _freak_?"

"The boy needs a proper bedroom! We can't just go around denying him necessities! We can't just... just _beat _the freakishness out of him, it's barbaric!"

"_ARE YOU SUGGESTING WE BEAT MY NEPHEW? _I will not allow it! He's a growing boy and needs his own bedroom -he can have one of Dudley's- and he needs new clothes! And toys!" Petunia's eyes bulged dangerously as she said it.

"GIVE HIM DUDLEY'S SECOND BEDROOM? ARE YOU MAD?"

The argument continued on in that fashion, going in circles. One minute they would be horrified at their treatment of Harry, and the next they had reverted to their old ways. It was what made the argument so amusing to watch as it seemed to be happening to each of them at different times. As amusing as it was Harry couldn't let it go on much longer. He was only half way through with the charms he had to put on the Dursleys to alter their memories and feelings toward magic, and he only had a couple days to finish before he had to get started on his potions.

It was draining for his young body to perform such complicated magic, but he was already behind and he had to finish. Discreetly slipping his wand into his hand he quietly aimed towards his aunt and started softy murmuring the correct incantations. Ten minutes later found all three Dursleys sitting at the table, staring blankly in front of them. It then took Harry the better part of an hour to carefully recite and implant the alterations to their memories.

He had already dealt with Petunia's jealousy of her sister by carefully altering select events in her memoires and using the correct charms to change the feeling that went along with each memory. He had done the same with Vernon. Today he was focusing on their impressions of him, and their hatred of magic along with Dudley and their attitude towards him. He was doing this so that Dudley didn't grow up to be the spoilt, obese, bully that he had been originally. By altering Vernon and Petunia's attitude in this regard they would not spoil Dudley the way they had, and Harry and Dudley would be treated equally.

By the time he was done, he felt nearly ready to collapse but he forced himself to do the emotion charms. It took him far longer to do this, not because they were more difficult but because he was already so exhausted and his body couldn't take much more. Three hours later he was finally done, and feeling decidedly sick. He watched through tunnelled vision as the Dursleys resumed what they had been doing, completely unaware of the lapse in time.

"Aunt Petunia?" he asked weakly, too dizzy to care just how small his voice sounded. Which he supposed didn't matter anyways since he was five years old...

"Yes sweetheart?" If he wasn't on the verge of collapsing he would have done a double take at the fond tone of voice his aunt had used.

"I think I'm going to pass out." The words were barely out of his lips before he slipped into darkness.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Ron and Ginny had apparated from the Burrow directly to the old Gaunt home, and it had left them immediately unconscious. Apparition took a great deal of magic, which was why the age limit for learning was seventeen. It had almost completely depleted what small magical reserves their young bodies had, and they had been unconscious for nearly twenty four hours afterwards. That was why they wouldn't be able to use apparition as a method of travel in their quest for the horcruxes, they would have to settle for muggle means.

By the time Ginny started to come around it was morning the next day, and the first thing she noticed was that Ron was still knocked out. The second thing she noticed was just how creepy the decrepit shack before her really was. Shaking her head to rid herself of the thought, she attempted to roll over and immediately moaned in pain. The grass underneath her was little more than scattered patched with far more rock and dirt then actual grass, and the ground was still damp with morning dew. At least she hoped that was all it was.

Slowly moving into a sitting position, and being very careful so as to not jar her already aching head, she glanced around her. There was a scattering of trees, which was why they had chosen the back of the house to avoid being seen (not that it was likely anyone would be around anyways), and off in the distance she could see what must have been a local neighbourhood. Quickly scooping up her wand and the leftovers she had managed to steal before they had left home she moved to gently shake Ron.

When he didn't wake up right away she couldn't help the panic that slowly started to take hold of her. She took a deep breath and to calm herself and tried to remind herself that this was normal, and he may be unconscious for a while. She stood slowly and took a pile of cloth napkins from her pocket (also salvaged from the Weasley dinner table) and started to transfigure them. One was made into a simple tent; two were made into small foam mats, another two into the best sleeping-bags she could manage in her depleted state. The last two were transfigured into pillows. She was so exhausted by this point that she was almost unable to drag it all inside the tent. Dizzily she collected some wood that was scattered around and piled it up a short way away from the tent, and spelled some fire onto it.

Once she had regained her balance she turned towards Ron and quickly realised that there was no way she was up to dragging him into the tent. She decided there was nothing for it and she would just have to levitate him. Ginny knew it wasn't the smartest idea, her body was that of a four year old and could barely cope with the magic she had already done. But her worry for Ron overrode her common sense, and she settled him inside his sleeping bag. Her headache was nearly unbearable at this point, and her legs felt like they were made of lead. She crawled over to her sleeping-bag, unable to stand, and was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hermione grinned in triumph as she looked over her stack of completed compulsion letters. She had finished the letters to the families yesterday, and had just finished the ones to the various companies and employers today along with the one to the school. It had taken a lot out of her, but she was glad to be done them. She was quite tired and decided to take a nap before continuing on with anything. Moving over to the bed she once again had to jump a bit to actually get on, and she cursed her age for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. Once she had successfully manoeuvred herself onto the bed, she reached over to the small alarm clock and set it for later that afternoon.

Yawning widely she crawled under the covers and made a mental checklist for what she still had to do. First she needed to mail the letters, and then she needed to make her way to the ministry of magic. She had to find Amelia Bones and somehow plant the ideas for the changes she needed to make, without her noticing. Much easier said than done, but she decided to worry about it later as she felt herself slowly drift off into an easy slumber.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

When Ginny woke up next she was greeted with the sight of Ron's decidedly unhappy face. "Ginny, what were you thinking? You shouldn't have done all this by yourself; you should have waited for me to help you!"

"You weren't waking up Ron, I tried! Besides who know how long we had been laying outside? We can't afford to get sick or freeze to death, so I did what I had to do!"

"Yeah well you've been unconscious for near twelve hours! I was worried..."

Ginny sighed and rubbed a hand up and down her face. "Let's not argue alright? I was worried about you, you were worried about me. I just don't have the energy for this right now." Ron nodded slowly, and tossed her some of the food she had nicked for them. They both ate in silence, suddenly very aware of just how hungry they both were. By unspoken agreement they tried to eat as little as possible, they didn't have much food and had no idea when they would find more.

Once finished they talked in low voices, although Ginny wasn't sure why exactly since there was nobody around, and discussed how to tackle their first horcrux. It would take them weeks just to get past the outer wards, and weeks to get passed whatever obstacles were inside. Once they finally had the horcrux it would take them months to destroy it, and Ginny felt anxious just thinking about it. They decided to rest for a few days, and try to find some more food, before starting on the wards since they would need every ounce of energy their young bodies could provide to do this.

Not for the first time Ginny wished they could just owl Dumbledore and tell him everything he needed to know about the horcruxes and let him take care of it. Of course it was impossible because the moment they did that he would want to know how they got the information, and they would be unable to tell him. The ritual was designed so that the secret of time travel would be kept; it was similar to that of an unbreakable vow. If they told Dumbledore the truth (or anyone for that matter) about their time travel then they would inevitably die. There was a lot of death involved with this stupid ritual, Ginny thought bitterly.

Of course there was no other explanation they could have possibly given Dumbledore, and if they had then he probably wouldn't have believed them anyways. He most likely would have thought it meant that Harry's horcrux was becoming active or something. So needless to say, despite how much she wished they could just pass of this task; there was nothing they could do. It would have been so much easier; Dumbledore could have gotten the horcrux within a matter of hours, whereas it would take them months due to their age.

So as her and Ron lay in their sleeping-bags, she suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to just go home, and be with her family. She could only imagine what they were feeling right now. Her mother would be completely devastated, as would the rest of her family. It broke her heart to think about, so she tried to shake off the thoughts and think of something less depressing. It was then that she realise she had nothing but depressing thoughts and the vague hope that one day it would all be worth it. She had nightmares that night, nightmares of funerals and death.

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Not even a full 48 hours and I'm already posting another chapter! See I told you lots of reviews would help motivate me!

Next chapter we'll be dealing mostly with the Weasleys, and Harry. There will be some Hermione but not much. Also I just wanted let you guys know that I have changed some the the characters birthdays around, so if you notice that its not in sync with cannon don't worry because its on purpose :)

I also wanted to thank every who reviewed last chapter, you guys are amazing! We went from 28 reviews to 52 in a single chapter! You guys rock! Also thanks to everyone that put this story on alert, there are 110 of you now :)

I'm going to once again beg for reviews, the more reviews I get the more motivated I am to get the next chapter out, they are addicting! So please review, even is it is as simple as "like it" or "hate it" :) If your going to, or have, put this on an alert then please leave me a review so I know what you all think, I love to hear from you!

This chapter was just over 2000 words, so not as long as I was hoping but I really wanted to get it out. About how long do you guys think chapters should be from now on? I was thinking about aiming for 4000 words per chapter, let me know what you think :)


	6. Chapter 6

This chapter is dedicated to **Tamira. **Thank you for reviewing! I tried to reply but it said you don't accept author replies.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am not Making any money off of this.

AN: I am so sorry that this chapter has taken so long to get out! It's been a series of unfortunate events, first my computer crashed and I had to get it fixed but couldn't afford to right away, then I had midterms, then my boss went on vacation so I was working 24/7, then my Nana had a heart attack, then I had finals, and then of course it was Christmas and New Years. Anyways, sorry about that!

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A week had gone by and Harry's life with the Dursleys had changed so drastically he could hardly believe it himself. After he had woken up from his magical exhaustion his Aunt Petunia had rushed him to the doctor, and he had proceeded to spend the next two days in bed. Aunt Petunia had fussed over him the entire time, making him chicken soup and letting him pick any movies he wanted to watch. It was an entirely new experience for Harry, the closest he had ever come to it had been the infirmary at Hogwarts and Madame Pomfrey. Not exactly maternal that one.

Once he had been feeling better his aunt and uncle had sat him down for a long talk. They had explained to him that their treatment of him was extremely wrong. They had gone on to explain in great detail why what they had done was wrong, and that he deserved better. They had spent the entire afternoon making sure that Harry understood this and that things would be changing for Harry. Privately both Vernon and Petunia had been horrified with how they had been treating their young nephew, and neither could understand _why _they would do such a thing.

They loved Harry with all their hearts and had come to the conclusion that something must have been done to them _magically _to make them treat Harry in that way, and that Harry's accidental magic must have either undone it or it must have worn off. Petunia thought that _Dumbledore _must have done something to them, to make them mistreat Harry. He must have wanted Harry to grow up unloved, so that he would be easy to manipulate when he got to Hogwarts. Well, she thought viciously, he was going to be in for quite a shock when Harry did go to Hogwarts. She would make sure Harry was prepared...

It was ironic really that they thought this, since the truth was just the opposite. Harry was finding it quite hard to reconcile this set of Dursleys to the ones he had originally grown up with. They were so drastically different, they're entire personalities had changed, and all as a result from a few changes to their memories regarding magic. Without Petunia's jealously of her sister, there was no reason for her to consider Lily a _freak, _which in turn meant that she was much more tolerant and did not have the dying need to be _normal. _Harry had not really been expecting this, sure he knew that they would treat him better but he had not been expecting this drastic and complete personality change.

Hermione had warned him that the changes would be drastic; he just hadn't really believed it. He had thought the Dursely's bigoted-ness was so rooted that the changes would be minimal. He should have listed to Hermione, he supposed. She had tried to explain to him that people's personalities were rooted in their experiences and memoires. She had explained to him that Petunia's jealousy was a major facet of her personality and had basically shaped her into the person she was, and to take that away would completely change her. So really he shouldn't have been so shocked.

That wasn't the only reason he was having trouble with the situation. He was finding it hard at times to remember that it wasn't real. That the Dursely's didn't actually love him, that it was all fake, just pretend. Magic. It was difficult to remember, especially when he was receiving the love and attention he had always craved. He hadn't even realised how much he had wanted this, this love from his family, until now.

There were a few problems already, and really if Harry had been thinking he would have taken care of them before altering the Dursely's memories. He still had to make his potions, and they would take about two weeks to get all of them completed. Of course that was providing that Mrs. Figg actually had all the necessary ingredients and he wouldn't have to find some way to go to Diagon Ally and get them himself. What he hadn't thought through was that with the Dursely's new attitude, they actually treated him like the child that he was, or least his body was. It was making it extremely difficult to get away, especially since Aunt Petunia wouldn't let Harry or Dudley wander off by themselves.

At the moment Harry was sitting in his new bedroom, which had previously been the guest bedroom. Dudley's second bedroom had been converted into a play room for both of the boys. Harry was amazed by his new room, never having had anything quite like it before, a personalized space. He had been allowed to pick out the color he wanted the walls, the bed and dresser set, clothes, and toys. It had been overwhelming, and he had been ridiculously happy. The walls were a brilliant forrest green, and the bed and dresser a nice oak set. Aunt Petunia had been surprised he wanted such a "grown up" set, she had been sure he would have wanted one of the race car beds like Dudley's.

The sheets and bedcover were a frosty blue, almost silver. Really he had chosen the colors because he knew that when he attended Hogwarts he would have to be in Slytherin and he figured he might as well get used to the colors now. And while they weren't exactly Slytherin colors they were close enough. He had a brilliant time pick out toys, something he had never done before. Growing up he had never been able to play, and had never been given anything to do so with. He was slightly embarrassed by it really, even more so by the fact that he actually did play with them. He was glad Ron would never have to find out, or he'd likely never hear the end of it.

"Harry Dear, can you come down here please?"

"Coming Aunt Petunia!" As he walked into the kitchen he was greeted with the sight of his aunt sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of tea in her hand and a plate of cookies and milk in front of her. "Err, is everything okay?"

"Oh, yes sweetheart. Here, why don't you sit down?" She gestured to the seat in front of her, and started piling cookies onto his plate as he set down.

"Okay. Where are Dudley and Uncle Vernon?"

"They've gone out for the day to give us a chance to talk dear."

Harry very suddenly had a feeling what this was about, he had been wondering when or if they would tell him about magic. "Oh, you mean like the talk we had the other day?" He said, trying to play the part of the five year old she thought he was.

"Very much like that sweetie. I have a story I want to tell you, it's about a young boy and his family. This story takes place in a magical world, full of witches and wizards that use magic wands and go to school at a place called Hogwarts."

Harry couldn't help but find the way she was choosing to do this pretty interesting. It made sense he supposed, since he was supposed to be five years old. "A magical world Aunt Petunia?"

"Yes dear. But there was a bad man in this world called Lord Voldemort, and for eleven years he did many bad things and all the witches and wizards were afraid of him. Then one day he decided to go after the little boy and his family-"

"You mean he wanted to kill them?"

She looked as if she was unsure if she should say something to that and just settled for nodding her head. "Yes, so they went into hiding. But someone told the bad man where they were, and he went to their house. The boy's parents loved him very much and tried to protect him from the bad man but he killed them. When the bad man tried to kill the boy however, something happened that had never happened before. The boy survived, and the bad man was forced into hiding and hasn't been seen since. And from then on the little boy was known as the boy who lived..."

"That's a neat story Aunt Petunia, what happened to the boy? "

"Well dear he went to live with his aunt and uncle since they were his only living relatives..."

"You're my aunt." Harry said simply, it was rather hard trying to act like a child.

She nodded sadly. "Just like the little boy, you see Harry that's because the boy is you."

"Me?"

"Yes sweetheart, I-"

"But you said my parents died in a car accident."

"I know," She said sadly "You were just too young to know the truth, you still are... but you're old enough now for me to tell you the story..." They spent the rest of the afternoon like that, Aunt Petunia wouldn't tell Harry anymore about Voldemort (not that he needed to know really, but he had to act like he did) saying that he would have to wait until he was older. But she did tell him stories about his mother, and how she found out she was a witch, and about what Lily had told her of Hogwarts, Diagon Ally, and the wizarding world in general. Harry was pretty surprised by how much she knew, he had always thought she barely knew anything about the wizarding world.

They spoke well into the afternoon, until Dudley and Uncle Vernon came back. Harry and Dudley were sent upstairs to play while Petunia started making dinner. This left Harry reflecting on everything his aunt had told him, and eventually his mind wandered back to his current problem, how to sneak out to make the potions. There was nothing for it, he decided, he would just have to sneak out at night and hope that Mrs. Figg was not a light sleeper.

* * *

It had been a week and they were still at their Great Aunt Muriel's, and Bill knew that the situation was dire. He could tell that Charlie understood the severity of the situation, even Percy and the twins to some extent. They had barely seen their parents, and when they had it had been for short and rushed. He had only seen his mother once; she had been a wreck, sobbing on Aunt Muriel's shoulder. The only other time he had seen her this upset was when his Uncles had died. He had done what he could to keep his siblings away, not wanting them to see her like that, knowing that it would only scare them.

At the moment they were in the sitting room, Arthur had just arrived minutes before and had gathered them there to speak with them. He was pale, his eyes were bloodshot, and he looked as if he hadn't eaten or slept in days. Bill knew what he must be here to say, that they were going home because there was possibly nothing to find... but no he couldn't think like that. He made sure to sit on the left of the twins, knowing that they would need him, while Charlie sat beside Percy.

As Arthur spoke his voice shook, but all Bill could hear was the ringing in his ears. He caught phrases like "No sign of them yet" and "-won't give up hope." But what hope was there? Ron and Ginny were so young, they couldn't survive in the wilderness for a week by themselves, it was more likely that they were... but still no bodies had been found. He didn't know what to think, or if perhaps it wouldn't be better to hope that they had been kidnapped, because that way there could at least be the chance that they were still alive.

"So for now we're going to head back home... there's nothing more we can do -" Arthur's voice shook as he said it "-here."

The twins eyes snapped to their father and Bill could see at once that they finally understood that Ron and Ginny wouldn't be coming home. "You're not giving up though-" Fred said.

"We're going to keep looking?" George finished.

"Of –of course. We're going to do everything we can..." So that night they gathered their things and headed home.

The house was eerily quiet when they got there, as if the house itself was morning. It wasn't until he was heading to bed that he passed Ginny's room, his only sister... his baby sister...he was supposed to protect her, that he broke down. He hadn't cried in years, but now the tears couldn't seem to stop. That was where his mother found him, standing in the middle of Ginny's room, crying. She wrapped her arms around him and told him, even as she started crying herself, that everything would be okay. And in that instant he let himself believe her, let himself believe that his mother could fix anything as he used to when he was younger, and let himself believe that everything would work out. They stayed that way for nearly an hour, but then the moment passed and all he could remember was that there were some things parents couldn't fix, and that happy endings were reserved for fairy tales.

* * *

Sirius Black had been in Azkaban prison for four years, four long miserable years. However, unlike most that resided within Azkaban, he was quite sane. For most people insanity would already be beginning to take hold; however Sirius Black had never been like most people. He supposed that this was because he had his animagus form to keep the dementors at bay, and he had that fact that he was technically innocent to cling to. Due to his animagus form he was only feeling the effects of the dementors that most people would be feeling after a year. But he knew that he wouldn't remain this way forever, he would never go truly insane but he knew that eventually he would begin to lose parts of himself.

He felt that this was the punishment he deserved, for failing his best friend and for chasing revenge rather than looking after his godson. He tried to hold onto the thought of his godson, because he knew that eventually as he started to lose himself he would lose sight of his godson as well. That is to say he would begin to forget that Harry was separate from James, and he also knew that taking revenge would become a fixation when his mind began to go. For the moment though he was still completely sane, only suffering from the depression that the dementors caused. Nothing that a few weeks outside of Azkaban wouldn't cure.

It was at that moment that he felt a searing pain in his head, almost as if something was trying to force its way in. The pressure built until finally he blacked out. As he lay there unconscious on the grimy floor of his cell something amazing happened. When Sirius Black passed through the veil his soul was preserved, and as is the case for all that pass through the veil and deemed worthy, and returned to his living body at a point of time in the past. Much like a horcrux being reunited with the original part of the soul.

Since it was his own soul that was being absorbed into him the processes wasn't nearly so painful, not did it take so long, as it would have had it been someone else's soul. His original soul was whole and unbroken as of yet by Azkaban, while the part of his soul that had passed through the veil was twisted from the long years spent in Azkaban. The purity of his original soul cleansed the other half, until the only part that remained was the memories that it held.

When Sirius woke several hours later he was immediately panicked. Eventually he calmed down as his memories sorted themselves out. He was still the Sirius of now, unbroken by Azkaban; however he had the memories of his future self. They were a part of him. However he was now able to view them in a way that his future self hadn't been capable of due to the thirteen years he had spent in Azkaban. So with this hindsight available to him he formed a plan, and set out to do what he should have done four years ago, immediately after James and Lily had died.

He was going to break out of Azkaban (it wouldn't be nearly so exhausting now as it had been in the future since he was healthier now then he was then) and would immediately set out to retrieve Wormtail. Then he would go straight to Dumbledore, since the Ministry would probably give him the Kiss on sight, and explain the switch in secret keepers and how Peter had tricked him. Then Dumbledore would be able to get his name cleared and he would be able to take Harry to live with him and be the godfather that he should have been from the beginning.

* * *

Harry groaned as he tripped over Mr. Kibbles the cat, it was the fourth time that week. Thank Merlin for silencing spells or Mrs. Figg would have most definitely woken up as she had the first time it happened. It had been a close call but he had dived into the bushes just in time. He had a hard time explaining away his dirty pyjamas to Aunt Petunia the next day. Of course it was only afterwards that it occurred to him that he could have used a silencing spell, or that he could have spelled his clothes clean.

He skirted past Mr. Kibbles and made his way into the now familiar house. He had been sneaking into Mrs. Figg's house for the past week and a half making the potions he needed. He only had a few more booster and nutrition potions to make before he would be done. Of course he would have to come back in a few months and make more, but at least he'd be done for now. He counted himself very lucky that Mrs. Figg had all of the necessary supplies and ingredients, as that meant he didn't have to worry about figuring out a way to get into Diagon Ally to buy some of his own.

Even luckier was that most of her potions supplies and ingredients appeared to be out of use, which was a good thing for Harry since it meant that he didn't have to worry about Mrs. Figg discovering that she was missing potions ingredients. As he quietly made his way into the closest, gathering up the things he needed, he brought them back into the kitchen where he had been brewing each time he came here. Setting the oven to a low simmer with the cauldron on top he began dicing up the wormwood he needed.

Once he had done that and had finished adding all the other ingredients he set the self stirring ladle for 25 clockwise and 3 counter clockwise. That done he moved over to sit at the kitchen table where something immediately something caught his eye. It appeared that Mrs. Figg had left that morning's paper on the kitchen table, however it was not the paper itself but rather the headline that had caught his attention. **Notorious Mass Murderer Sirius Black Escapes From Azkaban! **Well, he thought somewhat dazedly, that certainly wasn't part of the plan.

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Well, there we go, it wasn't quite 4000 words like I had hoped, but it is over 3000 words :D And they've hit their first major problem! What did you guys think? Please review and let me know! Even if its just something as simple as "like it" or "hate it." I'd really love to hit 100 reviews with this chapter, that would be amazing! I've already started on the next chapter so it won't be anywhere near as long to get out as this one was. I'll probably post the next chapter in a week :)


	7. Chapter 7

This chapter is dedicated to **Smozzick**.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me.

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It had been a month since Sirius had broken out of Azkaban, and Harry had not seen or heard from him yet. He frequently snuck into Figg's house to read the Prophet for news about Sirius, but it was always the same thing. _Sirius Black spotted in London. No News on Sirius Black. Ministry in a panic: Sirius Black still at large. _

Harry couldn't decide if it was good or bad that there was no news. On the one hand he desperately hoped that his Godfather would catch Wormtail and be set free, while on the other hand dreading that very outcome because it would throw a major wrench into the Plan. They needed Wormtail to go to Voldemort at the end of Harry's first year, like he did originally, not before. Any sooner and things could go disastrously wrong.

There was not much that he could do though, he would just have to wait and see what happened. Now that Sirius had escaped Harry supposed that the best possible scenario would be Wormtail getting caught, Sirius being set free, and Wormtail consequentially breaking out of Azkaban and returning to Voldemort at the end of Harry's third year. The worst case scenario possible would be Wormtail returning to Voldemort now, while they were still horribly unprepared.

He would give it a few more days before doing something about the situation himself. He wasn't sure exactly what he could do, or what he would do. He wished he could talk to Hermione; she would at least have some idea of what needed to be done. Harry held on to the hope that maybe Hermione had found out about Sirius while she was making and sending the compulsion letters and was already setting out to salvage the situation. It would be so much easier if only he could talk to her, but that would be impossible.

Harry had finished the last of the potions he had to make a few weeks ago, and he was now the healthiest he had ever been. He was the proper height and weight for someone his age, and his skin had a healthy glow to it. Just two weeks ago Harry had preformed the ritual to absorb the horcrux within him. The pain had been unlike anything he had ever experienced and had seemed to last for an eternity. It had caused him to black out (he seemed to be doing rather a lot of that these days) for several days, causing the Dursleys to take him to the hospital.

He had only just returned home from the hospital a couple days ago, and Aunt Petunia was still fussing over him. He had once again been shocked at how concerned and worried the Dursleys had been. Aunt Petunia hadn't left his side the entire time he was in the hospital, Uncle Vernon had come by every day with treats, and Dudley had even given him a get well card and a stuffed teddy bear. He really shouldn't have been shocked, since the whole purpose of altering their memories was to get them to act this way. But still, it was hard to get used to.

He had been using his Aunt Petunia enforced bed rest to sort through Voldemort's memories and integrate them with his own. Every single piece of information, skill, knowledge, and ability that Voldemort had Harry now had as well. By integrating Voldemort's horcrux with his own soul it had become a part of him. His soul had purified Voldemort's until all that was left was his knowledge, skills, and abilities. These things were a part of Harry now. That didn't mean that Harry was all knowing or mega powerful. It may seem that way to an outsider if he wasn't careful, but it was perfectly normal. After all he was twenty years old, stuck in a five year old body. He had all of his own life experience and knowledge as well as all of Voldemort's knowledge up until the day that he had tried to kill Harry.

Harry now spoke parsletongue, and that ability would never go away because he had absorbed the horcrux rather than getting rid of it. He also knew both Occlumency and Legilimency because Voldemort had known them. He was now fluent in many languages, French, Bulgarian, Latin, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish to name a few. Voldemort also spoke a few magical languages, one of which was Gobbledygook. Voldemort had decade to learn these languages and because he knew them Harry now knew them as well. But Voldemort had knowledge of many different things, magical artifacts and rituals, spells and hexes, potions, and various other things. All of this was now ingrained within Harry; he knew it because Voldemort's horcrux knew it. Voldemort had also been very charismatic when he wanted to be, and very convincing. That was something Harry also had now, he could understand body language better, knew how to manipulate people and read them, all from absorbing Voldemort's horcrux.

He had spent the last couple days of forced bed rest sorting through his newfound knowledge so that it did not remain a jumbled mess. But now he was finished, and right on time. It was his first official day of school today, and a very important day for the Plan. Hermione had sent out compulsion letters, arranging for the group of muggle borns and half bloods they had decided upon to move to Little Whinging. She had arranged it so that their families would have jobs, and there would be houses available. But most importantly she had sent out compulsions to the school, arranging it so that all eleven of them plus Harry would be in a class by themselves throughout their pre-Hogwarts schooling. This was no easy task as not all of them were the same age, Katie Bell for instance had been in the year of Harry at Hogwarts, but luckily she had been a December baby so it was not hard to get her put into the same class as the rest of them. A couple were also a year younger, making Hermione's job slightly more difficult but Harry was sure she had managed it.

It was important for the twelve of them (the eleven muggle borns and half bloods plus Harry) to be in a class together separate from everyone else. This was to make it easier for Harry to make them all be friends. The goal was for all twelve of them to be an extremely tight knit group. This would serve a few purposes, first it would give Harry a support system, secondly it would encourage Dumbledore's impression that perhaps Harry was more similar to Voldemort because he had also had a loyal group of followers throughout school, and thirdly it would help promote inter-house unity.

"Harry! Dudley! Time for breakfast! You don't want to be late for your first day of school do you?" Aunt Petunia called up the stairs. Dudley, never one to turn down the promise of food, thundered down the stairs and Harry followed at a more sedate pace. Today was going to be an interesting.

* * *

Sirius Black had been making his way to the Burrow. It was slow going; he wasn't in the best of health so he had to make frequent stops. Currently he was in London wandering around outside a motel looking for scraps of food. That was when he saw it, a head of bushy hair he would recognize anywhere. For a second he forgot himself, he did not think to wonder why she looked older when she should be around five years old. Happy to see a familiar face he bounded up to her, tail wagging happily.

Once she caught sight of him Hermione's eyes went a wide a saucers. "_Snuffles?_" Sirius barked happily and wagged his tail some more. Hermione knew immediately that something was wrong with this situation, Sirius clearly recognized her. Which was impossible, she hadn't met Sirius until she was thirteen and he had escaped Azkaban. He should be able to recognize her, in this timeline they had never met!

Of course he wasn't supposed to break out of Azkaban yet either, she had seen the newspaper a few weeks ago. She had known she would have to try and fix the situation, or the whole point of coming back would be lost. She had gone back to her home and modified her parents memory again, to make them think she was at camp all summer rather than just two weeks, since she wasn't sure how long it would take to do something about Sirius.

But now here he was, and she hadn't had to do anything. "Shh! Sirius be quiet, Lets go inside, I'll have to sneak you in..." Sirius followed Hermione into her room before morphing back into himself.

Hermione chose that moment to let the glamour off of herself, too exhausted to hold I any longer. It was then that Sirius seemed to realize the problem that in this year Hermione was currently five, along with Ron, and Harry, and that they had never met but still both seemed to recognize each other. They stared at each other for a few tense moments, both unsure of what to say. Hermione was unsure of how much she could say before the residual magic from the ritual killed her. She was fairly certain that if she was vague about the ritual itself she could explain what they had done and the consequences and their plan. At least she hoped so.

It was Sirius who broke the ice. "So, did you fall through the veil too?"

* * *

"So let me get this straight." Sirius said. "After I fell through the veil, Dumbledore died. Sent Harry, Ron, and You on a Horcrux hunt. You find and destroy the horcruxes, but in the final battle Fred, Tonks, and Remus all die. Then before you can go find your parents they die. Molly Weasley goes insane with grief; George can't live without Fred, general depression and angst all around, which how the three of you and Ginny come to the conclusion that you should travel back in time." Hermione nodded

"You then come up with a plan for Ron and Ginny to run away and destroy all the horcruxes, and for them to tell their in five years or so when they go home that they've been living on the streets of London. Meanwhile you've been sending out illegal compulsion letters and impersonating ministry personal, so that Harry can have a tight knit group of friends that will make Dumbledore worried Harry is going down the same path as Voldemort (I still don't understand that thinking Hermione). Then once you lot get to Hogwarts you're all going to get sorted into different houses, divide and conquer yada yada yada."

"It sounds awful when you say it like that. It really is much more complicated than that, but I can't give you any details about the our Plan or the ritual or—"

"You'll all die. Yes I know. And I can't help with anything or it'll mess up the Plan, and I can't pass messages between you all or you'll die, and I can't tell Harry about this conversation because that counts as passing messages and you'll all die."

"Exactly."

"So the only thing I can do is catch Peter, clear my name, and ensure that he ends up in Azkaban with no hope of escaping. Then get myself to some healers for my physical and mental health, and then gain custody of Harry as his Godfather. But I'll have to live on Privet Drive so that Harry can continue his part in the Plan."

Hermione nodded, "Precisely. And you have to make sure Harry knows that Wormtail is in Azkaban."

Sirius just stared at her. "Do you know how weird it is to be having this conversation with a five year old?" Hermione just rolled her eyes.

* * *

I am so sorry this chapter took so long to get out! My Nana had a heart attack and a few strokes, My computer broke down, and my University's faculty has been on strike so I've been pretty stressed out lately.

Anyways as always, review and let me know what you think! I love hearing from you guys :)


	8. Chapter 8

**This chapter is dedicated to hypercell, Kitsumi-Hime, and Brain Fluff.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**

* * *

It was mid November, and Harry couldn't remember a single time in his life when he had been more carefree. Life with the Dursleys this time around couldn't have been more different. He had been back in the past for nearly five months now. He had just finished his potions regimen. All of the nutrition potions he had been taking had got him back up to where he should be, for his age. He had also finished all the immunization potions, for now at least. As he got older there would be more he would have to take. He had also finished taking all of the boosters, but it would be a few months yet before he would be able to tell if they had unlocked any recessive magical traits.

He had not heard any more news about Sirius, though not for lack of trying. Ms. Figg had apparently noticed that someone had been breaking into her home. She had finally noticed all of the potions ingredients had slowly been going disappearing. Luckily Harry had been done by that point so it hadn't been a problem for him. But it had prevented him from sneaking in to read the Daily Prophet for more news on Sirius. The last he had heard there had been no sightings of Sirius. He tried his best not to think about it too much, there was nothing he could do about it now.

Life was much more interesting now that the Dursleys treated him as if he were their own son. The Dursleys personalities had changed so drastically that if he hadn't been the one to cause the changes he wouldn't have believed it was them. He had his own room, of equal size to Dudley's, and Dudley and himself shared the smallest room as a playroom. None of the Dursleys put him down, locked him in a cupboard, starved him, or (in the case of Dudley) beat him up. Instead they went on family outings, watched movies together, and generally behaved like a normal family would.

It was hard to remember sometimes that it was all fake, that they didn't really love him. He had thought it wouldn't matter, that he wouldn't care because he hadn't liked them anyways. But he did care. He had spent years as a child wishing that his family would love him or that if they wouldn't then someone would rescue him that did. And now that he finally had one of those wishes come true he found himself wishing that it was real.

But the most drastic, and the best, change in life on Privet Drive for Harry this time around was by far actually having friends. Of course this had all been prearranged in accordance to the plan. Hermione had arranged for eleven muggleborns and halfbloods (that had grown up with their non-magical parent) to go to Harry's school. It had taken a lot of planning, because she had to arrange for their parents to have jobs and homes in the same neighborhood as Harry. Not only that but she had arranged it so that for the entirety of their schooling (their muggle schooling that is) the eleven of them, as well as Harry, would be in a class by themselves.

While the plan had arranged and given the circumstances for them to become friends, and Harry's part in the plan required that he actually did get them all to become friends, in the end he couldn't force them to be friends with him. But they were friends, all of them. It was a good feeling.

It was a lot different than his friendship with Ron and Hermione, and Ginny. That friendship was a deep-rooted bond born of life threatening situations and always having each other's backs. This new friendship was something entirely different. This new friendship was born of the carefree nature of childhood. Harry had never before had a friendship like it.

Katie Bell was the first one Harry had made friends with, on the very first day of school. Dean Thomas and Demelza Robbins had also been very easy to befriend, since he had been in Gryffindor with them and Katie in the original timeline. Hannah Abbot, Megan Jones, and Justin Finch-Fletchley had all been in Hufflepuff and had been relatively easy to befriend as well. Mandy Brockleburst, Su Li, and Kevin Entwhistle had also been fast and easy friendships. They had all been in Ravenclaw in the original timeline along with Terry Boot. Terry hadn't been very easy to befriend, but Harry had managed it in the end. Last had been Tracey Davis, a Slytherin in the original timeline. Harry had saved her for last, which didn't mean that he had excluded her previous to that. He had thought that she would be the hardest, but he had found that she had understood him quite well. Perhaps more so then any of the others. Not that this was saying much, considering everyone was between the ages four and six.

Almost all of them were the same age as Harry, five years old. The only exceptions to this were Katie, who was a year older, and Demelza, who was a year younger. Even though they had all only been friends since September they had become fairly close, as a result of binging in a class with just themselves. They spent all day in class together, their lunch and recess together, and would play in the neighborhood together after school.

* * *

Sirius had been slowly making his way to the Burrow. He wished he could have travelled faster, but it was pretty slow going. He had finally reached his destination though. He had been waiting all day for an opportunity to sneak into the house. Finally the last of the Weasleys had gone to bed, so Sirius slowly made his way into the house. He wished he could have done this in Dog form, but he couldn't risk Peter smelling his animagus form and running. His was to basically get in, grab Peter, and then use the floo to get to Hogwarts where he would then talk to Dumbledore.

He couldn't get caught. He wasn't sure if the Arthur and Molly would stun first and ask questions later, and he just couldn't take that risk. He crept up the stairs as quietly as he could. He had never been inside the Burrow before, so he wasn't sure which room Peter would be in. He tried four doors before he found the right one. As silently as he could he walked over to Percy Weasley's bed. Peter was asleep in the boy's arms. Sirius slid a rat out of his pocket, intending to switch this rat for Peter.

Of course Sirius' plans had been known to go wrong, and this one was no exception. Percy woke up at that exact moment, but Sirius slapped a hand over his mouth before he had the chance to scream. "It's alright kid, just keep quiet. I'm not going to hurt you."

Percy just stared at him, eyes wide with terror. Sirius couldn't help but wish he'd stop; he was starting to feel like a monster. "I just want your rat. I've even brought you another one to replace it. See?" Sirius said, holding up the rat in his hands.

It became clear to Sirius when Percy started thrashing he was going to have to do something a little more drastic. He felt bad, but really it was for the best. "Listen kid, if you don't stop right now I'm going to have to make you. And you don't want that."

The threat itself wasn't that bad, but Sirius was sure that Percy's imagination of _how _Sirius would make him stop would be a lot worse than anything he could come up with himself. The thrashing stopped. "Good. Now I'm going to take that rat" Sirius whispered, grabbing Peter (who was still sleeping). "And give you this one. No, take it,"

"Good. Now you're going to sit here quietly and count to two hundred. After that you can do whatever you want." Sirius removed his hand from Percy's mouth. He waited until Percy started counting, before making his way back downstairs as quickly as he could.

Grabbing some floo powder from the mantle he tossed it into the fireplace. "Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Office!"

* * *

Finally reaching two hundred, Percy screamed. The twins, whose room was closest to Percy's, came running in first. Followed shortly by Molly and Arthur. Bill and Charlie were at Hogwarts.

"Mum! A man came in! He threatened me, he took Scabbers!" Molly Weasley glanced from the rat in her son's lap to his terrified face.

"But sweetheart, look. Scabbers is right here. You've just had a bad dream is all." She said this soothingly , rubbing small circles on her sons back.

"No mum, it happened! I thought, I thought that he was going to too…" Percy trailed off, crying. But Molly and Arthur both knew what he was going to say. _Kill me like Ron and Ginny._ Molly felt her heart break, as it always did at the thought of Ron and Ginny. She tried to keep her own tears back, to comfort her son. She was never far from tears these days.

* * *

**First off I would like to thanks everyone for their well wishes :) I really appreciate it.**

**Secondly I just wanted to answer a couple questions since I didn't get around to answering any induviual reviews this time.**

**Q. Why was Hermione able to tell Sirius about the time travel and part of the plan without dying? Is it because he's also from the future?**

**A. You're absolutely right. The only reason she was able to tell him was because he was a time traveller as well, so he fell into a loop hole of the ritual. **

**Q. Will there be any more time travelers? Will anybody else find out about Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny time travelling?**

**A. No, there will be no other time travlers, and nobody else will find out :)**

**Q. Isn't it realistic that Ron and Ginny will be living on the streets at ages four and five?**

**A. Well, yes. But they won't actually be living on the streets at all, and they aren't actually four and five. They are adults, stuck in childrens bodies :P They won't be living on the streets, they are going to be tracking down Horcruxes and destroying them. So they'll be living camping style in forrests and things, away from and out of sight from other people. Then when its time to rejoin their family, they are going to use living on the streets as a cover story, complete with people that will actually remeber them as having done so, along with other skills and things like that. Is that realistic? Maybe not, but I'm counting on the fact that a) The Wizarding world is fairly ignorant of the muggle world and won't realize this, b) They will be very very convincing since there will be people that have memories of them living in the streets, and c) Although it isn't common, there are children that live on the streets, even in today's society. Also its just fanfiction, so its just for fun :) I hope that helps! :)**

**Q. How are Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny going to just not talk to each other? They'll all be in Hogwarts together and have classes together.**

**A. You're totally right, it will be a problem and they know that. They will have a lot of trouble with this, but they do ways that they are going to avoid each other that they worked out before they wen't back in time. It'll be explained more as we get closer to Hogwarts in the story :) But I will say this, you guys are totally right, it will be a problem and that's going to be a big part of the story. But I can't say anymore without giving anything away :P**

**Q. Why does Harry need to make a group before coming to Hogwarts? Why does he want Voldemort to believe that he's going down the same path as Voldemort?**

**A. Hehehe, well all I can say is that I really can't tell you :P As you guys know from Sirius' reaction when Hermione tells him their plan, he doesn't really understand why they have to do that either. But you guys are right to be wondering, and don't worry because there is a reason! You'll just have to wait a while to find out. Will the reason be good? In their minds it will be. To an outsider? Perhaps not. But they'll have Sirius to point out, when its all said and done, "Why the hell didn't you just do it this (insert much easier way here) way?"**

**Keep in mind that I've intentionally kept the plan vague. Its meant to sound odd, leaving you with lots of questions and holes. As we get farther into the story those things will get answered :)**

**And as always, Please review! The next chapter is already half written, so it should be posted in a few days! **


	9. Chapter 9

This chapter is dedicated to **CompYES. **Thank you for your review :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I am not making any money from this.

* * *

The first thing Sirius noticed when he stepped out of Dumbledore's floo was the shocked faces of some of his former professors. He had thought that by doing this late at night the office would be empty, and he would be able to seek Dumbledore out. But apparently that was not to be the case.

Sirius tried to ignore the wands trained at him, and said as casually as he could "Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if I'd be able to have a word with you Albus? Alone." Okay, so perhaps he should have thought that through better, but planning ahead wasn't his strong suit. And really, what else was he supposed to say?

"Sirius Black!" The voice belonged to his former head of house. Sirius had never seen her quite this severe, though he really wasn't surprised. After all, he was a convicted mass murderer, even if he was innocent.

Sirius held up his hands. "You can take my wand; it's in my left pocket. I'm not here to harm anyone; I just need to speak with Dumbledore."

Minerva's gaze flickered to Dumbledore who gave a small nod of the head. It was hard to read the expression on Dumbledore's face, and he had not yet taken his wand out. Flitwick and Sprout still had their wands trained on Sirius. Minerva stepped forward carefully, quickly taking the wand from Sirius.

"Ah, Minerva if I may?" Dumbledore said, holding his hand out for Sirius' wand. Dumbledore's eyes were hard, but he kept his voice light. "Now, if you may all excuse us, I believe Sirius here wanted a word with me."

This was met with instant protests. "Albus! You cannot be serious! He's dangerous; we have to alert the ministry!"

Dumbledore fixed his gaze on his three employees. "I do believe that I am more than a match for an unarmed wizard. We shall be fine. You may however wait outside if you are so inclined. I will alert the Ministry myself, once I have finished speaking to Sirius."

His tone left no room for argument, and one by one the three of them left the office. "Now Sirius, I do find it curious that a guilty man such as yourself would willingly seek me out and turn over your wand. What exactly did you come here for?"

"To prove my innocence." Sirius said, as he slammed Wormtail, in his rat form, onto Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the rat and motioned for Sirius to keep speaking.

The whole story came tumbling out after that. Everything from becoming an animagus in school, to switching to Peter at the last minute, to tracking Peter down and having the rat outsmart him. At the end of the tale, Dumbledore looked decidedly less dangerous and quite a bit more thoughtful. At least Sirius hoped that wasn't just wishful thinking on his part.

"I see. You wouldn't mind of course, if I tested your story?" Dumbledore said, gesturing to Wormtail. "And you would agree to tell your story once more under the influence of Veritaserum?"

Sirius agreed immediately, and Dumbledore wasted no time in reverting Peter back to human form. After that things went quite smoothly. Dumbledore had restrained Peter, to keep him from escaping, and he called Minerva and the others back in. Veritaserum was quickly fetched, the story retold, and ministry representatives were called in to witness the interrogation of both Sirius and Peter.

Since Sirius had never received a trial, and had thus never been formally convicted, the process to exonerate him was quite simple. The story would appear in the next morning's Daily Prophet, and Sirius would receive compensation for his wrongful imprisonment. Of course there were those within the ministry that would protest once they found out, but the fact was that Sirius was innocent. They had enough evidence with Peter in custody, as well as both Sirius and Peter's testimony, that any protests would be overruled.

Sirius was a free man.

* * *

Harry hadn't always liked Christmas. There was a time when he hated it, and as he got older and went to Hogwarts he grew to like it. Once he had friends. But Harry had never actually been excited for Christmas before, at least not in the way he was now. It was mid-December and school had just been let out for Christmas break. Although Harry was an adult living in his five year old body he was enjoying his time with his new friends immensely.

That was something he hadn't expected. After all, they were just children. He had thought that he'd be bored out of his mind most of the time, but he wasn't. Harry had been in the past for six months now, and nearly four of those months had been spent getting to know his new friends. He felt close to them, in a different way than he did with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

Harry felt quite close to all of them, but he felt especially close to Katie Bell and Tracey Davis. Katie lived in the house directly behind the Dursleys, while Tracey lived in the house directly beside the Dursleys. Dean Thomas lived in the house on the other side of the Dursleys, and Harry quite liked having him there. It was nice to have Dean close by, or Harry would have been surrounded entirely by his female friends. Demelza Robins lived across the street from Harry, as did Hannah Abbot. Megan Jones, Justin Finch-Fletchy, Terry Boot, Mandy Brockleburst, Su Li, and Kevin Entwhistle all lived just down the street from Harry.

Last month Dean had come up with the idea that they should build a club house, a secret one of course. A place where they could meet and play/hang out whenever they wanted. The idea had been a hit; of course five year olds weren't the best at building forts. It had been frustrating for Harry to watch, when he would know exactly what had to be done. But they were just children, and he couldn't expect them to build the kind of fort they wanted. Children had great imaginations after all, but lacked the practical skills necessary to build the kind of fort they had imagined.

That's when Mandy's father had stepped in. He was a construction worker, and Mandy had told him all about the fort they were trying to build. Over the last month he had come every day after work and helped them build. Well, really he did most of the building while the rest of them stood around and passed him nails and things. He brought supplies from various job sites, and occasionally got a co-worker to come help.

They had finished the fort near the end of November, and it was pretty great. It was a multi-level tree fort. It had a ground level, and a top level up in the trees. In between the two levels was a mid-level that was more of a lookout point type of thing. There was a pulley system to get things from the ground level to the top and vice versa. Once it was finished Harry had gone and cast some basic charms on it, for stability, warmth, and various other common charms used on Wizarding buildings. He had also charmed the fort, and surrounding area to ward off anyone other than the twelve of them.

That's where Harry was heading now, along with Katie. It was getting to be quite common to find Katie in the Dursley household, as she often hopped the fence between her house and Harry's to spend time there. Ever since Christmas break had started a few days prior Harry and his group of friends had been spending most of their time at the tree fort.

"We should give it a name!" Katie said excitedly. "We spend so much time there, and it's so neat. It'll be like a real fort if we give it a name, we can make a flag and everything!"

"That's a great idea Katie!"

"What's a great idea?" Asked Tracey, jumping up to Harry and Katie since she was in the middle of a game of hop-scotch with Demelza.

"About time! We've been waiting forever for you guys!" Demelza said, smiling at Harry.

"What was the idea?" Tracey persisted, and Harry grinned. He was coming to understand that Tracey hated to be left 'out of the loop' so to speak.

"Giving the tree fort a name!" Harry replied, "It was Katie's idea."

"Oooh, we should! That's a great idea!" Katie smiled at Demelza praise, blushing a bit.

"Well, just as long as we don't name it after that football team Dean likes so much…" Tracey said, and they all laughed.

"Come on, let's go tell the others!"

* * *

First off, I am so sorry it took so long to update. All I can say is that life got in the way, it's been a crazy year for me.

Secondly, thanks to everyone that's stuck with me! And to everyone that has reviewed, I appreciate you all!

Next, I'm going to apologize now for any spelling and grammar mistakes in this chapter, I didn't have time to edit it before I posted it. Also, I'm sorry that it's so short! But I wanted to get a chapter out ASAP, because I figured that I've kept you guys waiting long enough. I'm going to try and post the next chapter within the next two weeks though, and it'll be a much longer one!

Lastly, I'd like you guys to give me your opinions on what they should name the tree fort. I'd also like some suggestions for names for Harry and his group of friends, keep in mind that it should be something that they can still use once they get to Hogwarts and get older. I have a couple ideas, but I'm not too happy with them. If I pick your idea you will receive credit for it.

**Sneak Peak as to what's going to be in the next chapter: **

**- Ron and Ginny are going to break through and get the first horcrux! It will be dangerous, and perhaps not go as smoothly as they had planned.**

**- Sirius hits a snag in trying to gain custody of Harry.**

**- We get to see how the Weasleys are doing.**

As always, please review!


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